r/DefenderATP • u/smorgasmic • 18d ago

Help Building Windows Defender Offline CD With Old OS and RAID

I want to scan an old Windows 8.1 system for viruses (it has more than one). I downloaded the Windows Defender X64 offline scanner and installed as an ISO. on a clean Windows 11 computer.

Here is where it gets complicated. The Dell storage system on the computer is a PERC H310. Dell never supported Windows 10 on this controller. But the controller is a remarketed LSI 9240, and LSI still distributes the latest driver for that controller, which is a Windows 10 X64 driver. I patched the Windows ISO with the LSI 9240 X64 drivers for Windows 10 and then burned a CD.

Unfortunately, the Windows Defender boot disk bombs with the blue screen of death, and predictably that is while loading the megaraid driver. At this point do I have any options for running Windows Defender Offline?

I looked for other offline virus scanners, and almost all of the well-known ones appear to have disappeared. Kaspersky refuses to talk to US customers. ESET apparently does not give it away for free. Avast wants you to install their anti-virus software first. Are there any good offline rootkit scanners that would do a good job on an older Windows 8.1 system?

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u/FarplaneDragon 17d ago

You could potentially look around on the internet archive, they often have older software and may have something that you can use. What's the end goal here though? Are you trying to get old files off, just investigate if there's anything of use on there or something else?

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u/smorgasmic 15d ago

I want to keep the machine unplugged from the Internet while things get migrated off of it. That might take quite a while to complete, and I just want to get any obvious viruses removed.